Animal abusers also hurt people

By BOBBI SEIDELSTAFF WRITER

Animal abusers also hurt people

Heather Cammisa has witnessed the link between animal abuse and violence against people.

"There was a household with domestic violence, and in order to get at his wife, the husband threw her kitten across the room into the wall like a baseball. It broke the kitten's limbs," says Cammisa, a state-certified animal cruelty investigator and board member of Jersey Shore Animal Center, Brick.

"We were called out when the cops were at the scene. The couple later divorced," says Cammisa of the incident in Brick. The center handles the township's animal control.

Manchester resident Christine Cetero, 56, also has seen the connection.

"I'm a social worker. I know from firsthand experience there's a connection between animal abuse and abuse of a spouse or children," says Cetero, who also runs a nonprofit cat rescue.

A 1983 study done by New Jersey's Division of Youth and Family Services was one of the first to document the link, Cammisa says.

"In the DYFS study, 88 percent of pet-owning families under treatment because of child abuse had at least one person who abused pets," Cammisa says. Studies documenting the connection have since been done in Utah, Wisconsin and Ontario, Canada, she says.

A 1997 study done by Northeastern University and the Massachusetts SPCA also shows the link, says Mary Lou Randour, a psychologist and professional outreach coordinator for the Humane Society of the United States.

Researchers examined the criminal records of people convicted of intentional cruelty to animals from 1975 to 1986 in Massachusetts.

"It showed these people were five times more likely to have committed violent crimes against people, four times more likely to commit crimes against property, and three times more likely to have a record for drug and disorderly conduct offenses," Randour says.

A 20-year University of Pittsburgh study examining aggressive behavior in children tracked thousands of third-, fifth- and seventh-graders considered at risk because of family and neighborhood situations, she says.

One of the primary factors associated with "the persistance of antisocial, aggressive behavior" was cruelty to animals, she says.